s had first shown him to her--when he must
have passed within a few feet of her, it might not then have been so
difficult to rouse him. But at that time he would not have known his
own.

A bedlam of raucous, clamorous shrieks settling into a crude sort of
war cry brought all four of them to their feet. Wilson thrust the girl
back of him towards the cave-like formation behind them. This
effectually protected them in the rear and partly from two sides.
Stubbs swept the bags of jewels into his arms and carried them to one
corner of this natural excavation. Then he took his position by the
side of Wilson and Manning, who was unarmed. The three waited the
approach of the unseen demons. Not a light, not the glint of a weapon
could be seen. But before their eyes, in and out among the trees
making up the dense growth, shadows flitted back and forth in a sort
of ghost dance. In addition to the hoarse shouting, the air was rent
from time to time by the sound of a blast as from a large horn.

The effect of this upon Manning, who had been thrust behind them by
Wilson, was peculiar. At each blast he threw back his head and sniffed
at the air as a war horse does at sound of the bugle. His eyes
brightened, his lean frame quivered with emotion, his hands closed
into tight knots. The girl, observing this, crept closer to him in
alarm. She seized his arm and called to him, but he made no response.

"Father! Father!" she shouted above the din.

He started forward a pace, but she drew him back. Seeing her he came
to himself again for a moment. She scarcely knew him; the old look of
intensity which strained almost every feature out of the normal had
transformed him. He stood now as it were between two personalities. He
partially realized this, for he stepped forward behind Wilson and
shouted:

"They come! They come! I--I think I can stop them--for a little.
If--if I do, don't delay--don't wait for me."

Wilson thought he rambled.

"Do you hear? Quick--tell me?"

"Yes," shouted Wilson.

The din seemed to be approaching in an ever-narrowing circle. It came
from all sides--a noise so deafening, so full of unusual sounds that
it was in itself terrifying. Again came the blast, followed by another
and another. Manning caught sight of the image upon the ground. It
acted like magic. He snatched it up. But the girl, regardless of
danger, ran to his side.

"Don't," she cried in a panic. "What is the matter, father?"

He looked down at